Embodied Human–Computer Interaction in Vocal Music Performance

92 Pages·2023·2.558 MB·English

by  Franziska Baumann

SpringerBriefs on Cultural Computing
Franziska Baumann
Embodied Human-Computer
Interaction in
Vocal Music Performance
Springer Series on Cultural Computing
SpringerBriefs on Cultural Computing
Founding Editor
Ernest Edmonds
Series Editor
Craig Vear, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
Editorial Board
Paul Brown, University of Sussex, Ocean Shores, Australia
Nick Bryan-Kinns, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
David England, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK
Sam Ferguson, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
Bronac˙ Ferran, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK
Andrew Hugill, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
Nicholas Lambert, Ravensbourne, London, UK
Jonas Lowgren, Linköping University, Norrköping, Sweden
Ellen Yi-Luen Do , University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
Sean Clark, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK
Nelson Zagalo, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
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Franziska Baumann
Embodied Human–Computer
Interaction in Vocal Music
Performance
Franziska Baumann
Spiegel bei Bern, Switzerland
ISSN 2195-9056 ISSN 2195-9064 (electronic)
Springer Series on Cultural Computing
ISSN 2661-8710 ISSN 2661-8729 (electronic)
SpringerBriefs on Cultural Computing
ISBN 978-3-031-17984-6 ISBN 978-3-031-17985-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17985-3
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023
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Dedicated to Daniel, Emanuel, Alisha, Aviv
and Sylvia
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I would like to thank Craig Vear for his invitation to submit a
proposal for this book. Without his encouragement, I would not have embarked on
this process. His support and helpful comments, and our discussions, greatly helped
my work throughout. The process of searching, discarding and refining research and
reflection on various aspects related to embodied human–computer interaction in
vocal music performance has been instructive and inspiring well beyond this work.
I am grateful to the Springer Cultural Computing series for the contribution
of anonymous reviewers, whose detailed feedback helped clarify the book’s key
concepts and underlying arguments.
The book was largely inspired and shaped by the interviews with singers,
composers, artists and researchers Kristin Norderval, Alex Nowitz, Pamela Z. and
Atau Tanaka, who generously gave their time, vision and unique insights during the
interviews.
Writing a book is a long and extensive process. I see myself as an antenna for
ideas and insights that have emerged in the field and that I have learned over the
years in many conversations, presentations and performances at concerts, festivals
and conferences. In particular, I took much inspiration from the ICLI Symposium in
Trondheim in 2020, Kristin Norderval’s VOXLab Festival in Oslo in 2021 and Alex
Nowitz’s festival Designing Voices in Berlin in 2021, where our music as well as
insights were shared in discussions and lectures.
I would also like to thank Bern Academy of The Arts Switzerland. The innovative
and progressive field of Composition and Creative Practice at the university provides
a flourishing interdisciplinary environment for teaching, research and the exchange
of ideas. The collaboration in an earlier research project, “Klang (ohne) Körper”—
Sound (without) Body—by Daniel Weissberg and Michael Harenberg provided me
with initial research approaches in the field of embodied and disembodied interface
performance.
I owe much to my musical and artistic collaborators in the freelance music scene,
with whom I have been able to broaden and refine my horizons over the years.
In particular, I would like to mention Claudia Brieske, Michel Wintsch, Matthias
Ziegler, Christoph Baumann, Angela Bürger and the many great musicians with
vii
viii Acknowledgements
whom I was privileged to play on my tours. I am also extremely thankful to electronics
engineer Andreas Litmanowitsch for the constant development and adaptation of new
sensor instruments and his reliable support in case of technical problems. I would
like to thank Johannes Schütt from ICST Zurich, with whom I learned to compose
with Ambisonic and he was always on hand when there were problems.
Simone von Büren was an invaluable help in finding eloquent English expressions
for my thoughts at the beginning of the writing. Tash Siddiqui proofread the final
manuscript in a concise time, for which I am very grateful.
Great thanks are also due to the Swiss foundation Landis & Gyr, which honoured
me with a six-month artist’s grant in London in 2022 and due to the Kanton Bern,
which supported the book project with the funding «Fo¨rderakzent 2021 Continuer».
This gave me the time and space to finish writing this book.
Finally, I reserve my most loving gratitude for my exceptional partner Daniel
Repond who has supported my work through all these years with sensor program-
ming, website development, technical support and his generous commitment.
Contents
1 Introduction .................................................... 1
1.1 Diving Deeper into Embodied Human–Computer Interaction ...... 2
1.2 New Interfaces = New Relationships ........................... 4
1.3 What is in the Book .......................................... 6
References ...................................................... 7
2 The Embodied Voice ............................................. 9
2.1 Introduction ................................................ 9
2.1.1 The History of the Multivocal Voice ..................... 11
2.1.2 The Human Voice as an Instrument ...................... 16
2.1.3 Musicalising Radical Vocality with the Composer’s Ear .... 22
References ...................................................... 24
3 The Mediated Voice ............................................. 25
3.1 Introduction ................................................ 25
3.1.1 The Electrified Space of Vocal Expression ................ 27
3.1.2 Co-presence of the Imaginative ......................... 31
3.1.3 Vocal Identities and Persona References .................. 35
3.1.4 Persona References Conclusions ........................ 44
References ...................................................... 45
4 Embodied Interface Performance with Gestural Systems ............ 47
4.1 Introduction ................................................ 47
4.2 The Interface as a Blackbox “In-Between” Vocal Entities .......... 49
4.3 Practising Gestural Systems Without Haptic Feedback Control ..... 51
4.4 Co-players Creating Meaning in the Human–Computer
Interaction .................................................. 55
4.4.1 The Body as Instrument ................................ 55
4.4.2 Designing Sensor Interfaces as Instrument, Prop, Object
or Mediated Body Extension ............................ 59
4.4.3 Playing with the Sensor’s Technical Potential
and Expressiveness .................................... 64
ix
x Contents
4.4.4 Software as a Model of Logic ........................... 67
4.4.5 Parametric Mapping Strategies .......................... 68
4.4.6 Sound Invites Action .................................. 70
4.4.7 Gestures: Complementary and Communicative ............ 71
4.4.8 Gestural Surrogacy and Symbolic Interaction ............. 73
4.4.9 Co-player Conclusions ................................. 75
4.5 Outlook and Reflections ...................................... 78
References ...................................................... 80